1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an improved toolbox (preferably carried in a truck bed) and specifically to a portable toolbox that can be easily transferred from a truck bed to the job site manually and easily returned manually to the truck bed.
2. Description of Related Art
Toolboxes are well known in the prior art. Many skilled craftsmen such as carpenters, painters, plumbers, builders and others utilize a permanently mounted toolbox that is typically mounted in the bed of a truck in a permanent manner. This allows the toolbox to be locked and permanently attached in the truck bed to prevent theft. The problem with this permanently mounted toolbox is that it is not movable to the job site which can be hundreds of yards from where the truck is parked requiring the skilled craftsmen to waste time going back and forth to and from the jobsite to retrieve or restore the proper tools to the toolbox. Accordingly, it is desirable for craftsmen to have a portable toolbox that can be mounted safely and securely in a truck bed but at the same time be manually portable and removable from the truck bed to the jobsite during the workday and placeable back in the truck bed at the end of the workday. The invention described herein accomplishes this. It is important that the toolbox support legs do not interfere with each other during the transition from moving the toolbox into or out of a space such as a truck bed. It is also important to realize that most toolboxes that are typically found in a truck bed are much too heavy for one or two people to carry or lift. Therefore the transition of a toolbox resting on a flat surface from a flat surface such as a truck bed to a mobile position where the legs are extended beneath the toolbox must be such that no lifting of the toolbox is necessary to extend the legs. This is accomplished in this invention by having the pivot axis of one pair of legs spaced apart from the end surface of the bottom of the toolbox so that there is a lip area where the toolbox remains supported at one end on a flat surface while the wheels can be moved manually into place and contact the ground, so that the toolbox does not have to be lifted by anyone during the transition.
It is, therefore, to the effective resolution of the aforementioned problems and shortcomings of the prior art that the present invention is directed. Due to the large weight of a typical craftsman tool box, manually carrying the conventional truck bed mounted tool box by one person is not feasible. Moving the tool box out of the truck bed is also problematic due to the tool box weight.